The topography and the surface properties of a gearwheel workpiece are important quality features in the field of toothed gearing.
There are therefore different measuring apparatuses for detecting the topography and the surface properties of gearwheel workpieces. Methods operating in a contactless manner and those operating in a probing or contacting manner are distinguished.
A probe is typically guided over the surface during mechanical probing. The result is a height signal recorded over the length of the probing path, which is also known as the surface profile. In the case of spur gears, only a line along the profile line and the flank line is typically measured. In the case of bevel gears, a virtual grid is placed on the radial projection of a tooth flank in order to thus define the target measuring points on the basis of such grid. Relatively coarsely meshed grids are adequate in order to check the topography of the tooth flanks of bevel gears.
Most probing or contact measuring methods are serially-operating methods, which leads to an increased expenditure of time and computing power in the event of an increase in the measuring precision. For example, for a gearwheel with 10 teeth, there are 20 tooth flanks which need to be measured. If a 5×9 grid of measurement points are provided per tooth flank, 900 total actual measured values are generated within the framework of such a measurement system. During computational evaluation and conditioning of said actual measured values, the 900 values are correlated, for example, with respective target data. This simple numerical example shows the computational complexity with which the user is confronted.
As the demands placed on toothed gearings are constantly on the rise, examinations are frequently also necessary which permit statements on the microstructure of the tooth flanks. Such statements are only possible if the resolution of the measurements is increased.